BEST SWISHES

Anchors Away!

If we want to fill our heads with the doom and gloom society
seems to thrive on, all we need to do is turn on the local
news at night.

To make that quantum leap toward personal happiness and
success in life, sometimes we just need to do what so many
people seem to be talking about lately: clean house and take
personal inventory of the people we associate with most.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is, Avoid the ugly
people. Mind you, when I say ugly, it has nothing to do with
physical appearance.

The comment illustrates that to best achieve our goals and
wants in life, we should surround ourselves with other like-
minded people to support us on our journey. In other words,
we need to clean house of our own ugly people who, for some
strange reason, we feel the need to hold onto.

Maybe you’ll relate to a personal example from my own life.
On the surface, Mark (not his real name) was a pretty nice
guy. I thought of him as my personal anchor, someone who
kept me grounded and helped me stay on focus and direction.

But every time I’d venture out into something new, Mark
would put his ugly hat on. Rather than becoming a voice of
reason or attempting to illuminate both sides of a given
situation, he’d only tell me about the horrors of such an
idea and how crazy it was for me to even think that way.

He made it clear that without him, I’d float off into
despair. (I mean, could you imagine me, of all people,
wanting to write a book, start my own company, or dive into
the volatile and unstable real estate market?)

Sounds funny now, huh? The moral of this story is that I
allowed Mark to set my limitations. I forgot that people
only have as much power over us as we give them.

In retrospect, Mark was correct: He was my anchor after all,
because I allowed him to hold me back from sailing toward
prosperity earlier in my life when I first wanted to take
that leap.

Until I grew strong enough to cut the tie and move forward
on my own, I allowed myself to be restrained by his idea of
what success should be.

Bottom line, I rolled up my sleeves and set myself free…
anchors away!

Remember, only you know what you’re capable of, so if you’re
going to choose to live up to someone’s expectations,
shouldn’t they be your own?

With that said, here’s my challenge. Take a moment to
reflect on any ugly people who may be taking up space in
your head (rent free), and gently let them go. You deserve
better. In fact, you deserve the best. Never, ever let
another person hold you back from your dreams.

Now, don’t do what I say, do what I did. Roll up your
sleeves and set yourself free as well. Anchors away!